A plasma display panel (herein referred to as a “PDP”) is a display apparatus using plasma discharge. Vacuum ultraviolet (herein referred to as “VUV”) rays emitted by the plasma discharge excite phosphor layers, and in turn, the phosphor layers emit visible light. The visible light is used to display images. Recently, the PDP has been implemented as a thin wide screen apparatus having a screen size of 60 inches or more and a thickness of 10 cm or less. In addition, since it is a spontaneous light emitting apparatus like a cathode ray tube (CRT), the PDP has excellent color reproducibility. Further, the PDP has no image distortion associated with its viewing angle.
Moreover, the PDP can be manufactured by a simpler method than a liquid crystal display (LCD) can, so the PDP can be produced with a low production cost and high productivity. Therefore, the PDP is expected to be the next generation of flat display apparatus for industry and home televisions.
Since the 1970s, various structures of the PDP have been developed. In recent years, a three-electrode surface-discharge type PDP has been widely used. In the three-electrode surface-discharge PDP, two electrodes including scan and sustain electrodes are disposed on one substrate, and one address electrode is disposed on the other substrate in a direction intersecting the scan and sustain electrodes. The two substrates are separated from each other so as to provide a discharge cell. The discharge cell is filled with a discharge gas. In general, in the three-electrode surface-discharge PDP, the presence of a discharge is determined by an address discharge. Specifically, the address discharge is generated as a facing discharge between the scan electrode controlled separately and the address electrode opposite to the scan electrode, and a sustain discharge related to brightness is generated as a surface discharge between the scan and sustain electrodes disposed on the same substrate.
A general AC three-electrode surface-discharge PDP includes a front substrate and a rear substrate facing each other. Address electrodes are disposed on the rear substrate along one direction, and a dielectric layer is disposed on the entire the front substrate so as to cover the address electrodes. A plurality of barrier ribs are disposed on the dielectric layer so as to define discharge cells. Red (R), green (G), and blue (B) phosphor layers are disposed in the respective discharge cells partitioned by the barrier ribs. Pairs of display electrodes are disposed on the front substrate in a direction intersecting the direction of address electrodes. Each pair of display electrodes includes a transparent electrode and a bus electrode. A dielectric layer and a protection layer made of magnesium oxide (MgO) are sequentially formed on the entire surface of the front substrate so as to cover the display electrodes. The intersections between the address electrodes of the rear substrate and the pairs of display electrodes correspond to the discharge cells.
A metal electrode in such a structure of a plasma display panel is generally formed using a pattern-printing method. The pattern-printing method is relatively simple and can make a metal electrode with narrow intervals. However, there is a limit for forming a fine width of electrodes, and the method is not suitable for large screens and the high-definition of high resolution PDPs.